


Worth the Risk

by Peppermint_Miraculous (Peppermint_Shamrock)



Series: Peppermint's DJWifi December One-Shots [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Djwifi December, Episode: s02 Anansi, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 04:16:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16803457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppermint_Shamrock/pseuds/Peppermint_Miraculous
Summary: Alya wanted to wait for her soulmate, only to fall for a boy who didn't believe in them.Written for DJWifi December Day 1 Prompt - AU





	Worth the Risk

Alya struggled uselessly against the web as Anansi knocked Nino back again and again, but it held strong. Not that it would’ve done her much good if she _had_ been able to free herself – it was a long drop to the ground, and with Chat Noir just as stuck as her, there was no way that would end well for her.

She hated feeling helpless, and she hated that it gave her sister something to be smug about. As much as she could really call this akumatized version her sister.

“You really think you can protect her?” Anansi taunted Nino. “Who do you think you are, her soulmate or something?”

At that, Nino, who had been doubled over, clutching Chat Noir’s staff for support as he tried to catch his breath, looked up and fixed Anansi with an intense stare. And Alya’s breath caught in her throat as she fell still, because unlike Anansi, _she_ knew what came next.

And she wasn’t ready to hear it.

Because it was one thing, to come up against Nino’s anti-soulmate opinion. It was easy to argue then, easy to argue that she wanted to wait for her soulmate, and leave all the rest unsaid: that he wasn’t her soulmate, that it would only end badly, that they never could be…

They could dance around it all day long, but when Nino was down there putting himself on the line for her, how could she expect anything else than for him to say something that would shatter that carefully constructed equilibrium?

“No,” he said. “I’m not. And I don’t have to be, because she means so much more to me than some “soulmate” I’ve never met. I love her, and I won’t let you hurt her!”

Even though she had expected it, Alya gasped. Oh, she had known, of course she had known how Nino felt about her (how they felt about each other), but as long as they never said anything, then…

Too late, now. Where did they go from here? Could they pretend it never happened? That he never said what he said in the heat of the moment? Go on like nothing had changed? Or did she shut it down? Push him away, tell him that they’d only be left broken-hearted when one of them met their soulmate?

Nino talked a lot about how soulmates weren’t important, but surely he’d change his tune once he met his. That’s how it went. That’s why the Prematched used to avoid relationships, and wait for their Match. Because the ones that didn’t ended up with broken hearts and painful choices.

She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to get with someone only for ‘practice.’ And if you knew it would end eventually, wasn’t that all it was? She didn’t want to give her heart to Nino only to watch him leave somewhere down the line. And even more than that, she didn’t want to be the one to walk away.

She couldn’t do this. She had to think about her future. She couldn’t just…

Anansi just laughed. Perhaps it seemed absurd to her, but to Alya, it was painfully clear just how sincere Nino was. She knew, from the everyday moments to all the other times they’d been in danger together, all too well. In a way, she wished he wasn’t, so this wouldn’t be so hard. So she wouldn’t have to see him battered like this, as he charged forward, unrelenting as Anansi continued to toy with him and toss him away with ease.

Alya breathed a sigh of relief when Ladybug returned and whisked Nino away to safety. She’d have to deal with all the emotional stuff later, but for right now, she could only be glad that he wasn’t getting hurt anymore.

Ladybug returned to the fray, this time with a new hero in tow. Alya was thankful for the distraction – a new hero was something exciting for the Ladyblog, and she was already thinking of what she was going to post about this, since she couldn’t exactly film at the moment with her hands stuck to the web.

The fight raged below, shaking the sticky prison as the arch began to crumble. Just as Alya was starting to become concerned that falling debris would hit her, or worse, that everything would collapse, the turtle hero leapt up next to her.

She didn’t think much of it, at first. But then he spoke, and Alya _saw_ him.

Saw him as he wrapped himself protectively around her. Saw him as he raised his shield above them. Saw him as he looked at her with such undisguised affection that it _ached_.

Maybe Nino was right that soulmates weren’t all that, because how could a soulmate bond surpass this? You only felt it once, everyone said; once, and never again. But this, _this_ feeling – did she dare call it love? – this was something she could experience again and again, as long as she was with him.

And then again, maybe he was wrong, and they were just setting themselves up to get hurt in the end. _But maybe_ , Alya thought as he smiled at her, _maybe he’s worth the risk_.

_We should’ve been soulmates. It would make things so much easier._

Briefly, she entertained the thought that maybe they _could_ be soulmates, after all. Ladybug and Chat Noir had discovered their soulmate status while suited up, presumably, so, maybe if she, as Rena Rouge, and him, as…Carapace, he said…maybe, like that, they could be…

She shook her head. It was too fantastical a thought, and she’d only hurt them both by getting her hopes up like that. That wasn’t how the soulmate bond worked – it was first touch, and it didn’t matter whether you were suited up as a superhero or not. No, if she was going to do this, she couldn’t deny the likelihood that they’d each find someone else, and it would hurt. She had to accept that risk.

As Alya helped Nora reorient herself, Nino and Marinette each came running up from different directions.

“Are you alright?” Nino asked as he caught his breath.

“Yeah,” Alya said, and she smiled softly at him, really taking him in in a way she’d never let herself do before. “You really put yourself on the line out there today, huh?”

“Uh, yeah, well, I mean, Ladybug asked me to, and I mean, not that I did that much, not like a superhero or anything…” Nino rambled nervously.

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” she said, cutting him off gently. Because while she certainly appreciated him defending her, it wasn’t the part that would’ve terrified her had she been in his shoes. “I meant…what you said, then.”

“Oh. That…” Nino said, flushing. Alya wondered if it had only just caught up to him what he’d actually said.

Nora and Marinette exchanged confused looks. Of course, Nora wouldn’t remember anything from her time under Papillon’s influence, and Marinette wasn’t there, so neither would know what Nino had said. It was probably better that way.

“You meant it,” Alya said, and it wasn’t a question, but Nino answered with a deeper blush and another nervous noise. “Maybe…” she started, her throat seeming dry all of a sudden. “Maybe we could talk about it.”

His head shot up.

“You mean…?”

“I mean…maybe it’s worth a try.”

“What are you two even talking about?” Nora interrupted. Without waiting for a response, she continued. “Anyway…I think I owe you an apology…”

Eventually, Alya was able to get Nino alone. She didn’t waste any time.

“So…Nino Lahiffe, will you be my boyfriend?”

“Yes! Definitely yes!” he said, and shot her nervous finger guns. “Yes. Cool. Yes…”

“Okay, I get it!” Alya said. She smiled. “I get it.”

“I just want to say that I, uh, have never done this dating thing before, and I know you haven’t either, obviously, ‘cause of the soulmate thing and I don’t know what changed your mind but I’m not complaining and…”

“I didn’t change my mind, not exactly. We’re probably gonna find our soulmates and go our separate ways in the end…”

“Not necessarily,” Nino started to argue, no longer rambling now that he was on a topic he was confident on. Alya’d heard it all before.

“It could happen. But…I like you too much to let that stop me anymore. Today just…helped me realize that.”

“I think today helped me realize just how much I liked you, too,” Nino said. “All I could think about was protecting you.”

Alya squeezed his hand.

“You did.”


End file.
